jibe/jive, needs washed

[Beverly Flanigan]

A nice comment.  A friend of mine who teaches in the English Dept. here at
Ohio University and is also from Pennsylvania (I can't recall where) has
actually been chided by her own faculty colleagues about "needs
washed"--talk about arrogance.  But you're right--it's common in central
and southern Ohio but not in your northern area.

At 06:40 PM 1/23/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>Hey all-- I usually just read the messages on this list, but the thread of
>"needs washed" drew my attention.
>
>This is typical in my dialect-- I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA.  I say that
>all the
>time-- "The car needs washed, the clothes need ironed."  I'm also always being
>corrected by people from "more correct" dialects and I recently overheard
>one of
>our English profs correcting a student's use of that (I teach in NW Ohio)
>
>So I'd say it's at least a western PA/eastern Ohio dialect feature.  It may
>spread wider than that, but it doesn't go further east, because I know people
>from eastern PA who just think it's plain wrong.
>
>
>
>
>
>--
>Patti J. Kurtz
>Assistant Professor, English
>Heidelberg College
>Tiffin, Ohio